WARREN — Our Lady of Fatima theater students are taking a turn to the serious. This coming week, students will perform Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a hard-hitting adaptation of the novel which is set in Macomb, Alabama. The play narrates events leading up to the trial of a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman.

To get into character, Director Maria Levesque hired Stephanie Dean, a Roger Williams University theater professor, to step in as a linguist coach and teach the students a deep southern accent.

“We wanted to expose them to new cultures and as an actor, these are things you have to learn,” said Ms. Levesque.

Making the task doubly challenging, Ms. Dean said some students had to first unfurl their Rhode Island accent to master the southern dialect – though there are some crossovers when comparing the strains.

“The Rhode Island dialect is similar to the deep south. The Rs get dropped and the Ts become Ds,” said Ms. Dean. “There’s a lot of repetition and repeating.”

Senior Jackie Smiley is playing the part of Miss Maudie. Because her grandfather is from Arkansas and her father is a midwesterner, she said the dialect was fairly easy to acquire since she was used to hearing Southern twang since infancy.

“It was a lot easier to pick up,” she said.

On top of mastering foreign speech patterns, students said mastering the sheer tone of the play was one of the hardest hurdles during rehearsals. Because “To Kill a Mockingbird” touches upon racial and political struggles, students had to make a serious effort to grasp the context of the play. Also, since the cast is mostly composed of lower classmen, rehearsals have been challenging.

“We had to take three weeks to explain the play and the moral topics,” said Jackie. “It’s pretty serious.”

Paul Boucher, a 2008 graduate, is working as an assistant to the drama department. An organist who was involved in the school’s music department, he said this show is very different compared to shows of the past because it is rooted in fact rather than fantasy.

For eighth-grader Nick Boscia, acting is a natural fit. At first he froze up and turned red with embarrassment during the first run through of the show. But after some practice, he loosened up. And though this is the first play he has ever acted in, he said he really liked getting into the character of Dill.

“It’s fun. You get to act like a different person,” he said.

“Compared to the other shows, this one draws from actual events from our nation’s history,” Mr. Boucher said.

To make the set, crew members took apart a house from past show “Cinderella” and dismantled a vehicle from the musical “Grease.” Green tarps are used to look like grass. According to students, the materials were originally used in the late 1960s, close to when the school opened.

What: Our Lady of Fatima High School’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”

When:

n Friday, Nov. 6 at 9 a.m. for the student

body

n Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. for the

public

n Sunday, Nov. 8 at 2 p.m. for the public

How much: $5 for students, $8 for adults.

Tickets can be bought at the door or reserved by calling the school at 401-245-4449.